


I've Only Just Started Playing Hardball

by ColorWithMarker



Series: Fallen Son [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Family Drama, Family Feels, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 11:57:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4665681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColorWithMarker/pseuds/ColorWithMarker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just like anyone, Rhodey has someone he has to protect from the evils of the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I've Only Just Started Playing Hardball

Rhodey knocks on the townhouse door and paces on the front step impatiently. Anxiousness always arises when he visits, always for the same reason. And now it’s been almost two years since he’s last seen her. He isn’t going to be surprised if he’s smacked upside the head before he gets a proper hello.

The door opens, and he sees a young girl smiling up at him. “Uncle Jim!” she cries. Rhodey holds his arms open for the girl to jump into.

“Hey, Lila! You’ve gotten so big since I last saw you!” he exclaims. He puts his niece down. “Where’s everybody at?”

“Gran is making lunch, and Uncle Josh is at work, and I have so much to show you, Uncle Jim!” Lila bounces on the balls of her feet in excitement. “I have to show you what I made in the science fair!”

“I’ll check it out later, sweetie, I promise.” Rhodey ruffles her hair, and Lila makes a face as she tries to pat down her curls. Rhodey moves around her and steps through the hallway into the kitchen. “Hey, Ma,” he calls out.

In the far corner, his mother shuts the fridge and spins around. “Oh, James, look at you! All spiffy in your suit. Come give your mama a hug!” she cries. Rhodey bends down and wraps his arms around her. She still smells like that perfume he and his sister saved up for years ago. It’s the only one she ever wears.

“How have you been, Ma?” he asks.

“I’m just glad we’re not having another year with the Pope coming in. Glad he came, but not glad for the crowd.” She moves to the stove and opens the lid on one of two pots. “Sit down, James, and take a load off! Tell me how you’ve been! How’s your avenging going?”

“You don’t know?” Rhodey sits at the table and runs a hand over his hair. It’s starting to grow out again. Maybe he’ll visit a barber while he’s in Philly. “Everything was shot to hell. Captain America was assassinated.”

The lid goes back on the pot. “Was he now? What a shame. He was such a good man, right? That’s what you told me. And from whatever mumbo came out of Stark’s mouth,” his mother says. “How is Tony?”

“He’s been promoted to Director of SHIELD. I’m supposed to be there in a few days for a meeting. He says we’re going to have to build everything up from the ground again.” Rhodey reaches for an unopened bottle of water on the counter cracks it open. “Other than that, he’s a complete mess. Natasha told me that he spent the night after the accident destroying his lab.”

“Natasha, Natasha… that’s the spy girl or the magic girl?”

“Spy.”

“She’s quite the looker. Maybe you can–”

“Oh, no, I’m not trying with her. Or any of the female Avengers or SHIELD agents. Besides, she has a suitor, and if we ever somehow ended up fighting over her, I’d get pummeled into the ground. I’ll take the single life instead, thank you.”

The burners on the range are turned off. “And what about that girl Pepper? You’ve talked about her quite a bit over the years,” his mother says. “Or is she still with Tony?”

“As long as she’s there to keep him grounded and the company running, she’s Tony’s and Tony’s only. What kind of friend would I be to move in on her?”

“One who wants to give his mother, who went through hell and back raising her children, a lovely grandchild of her own.” A plate of chicken, dumplings, and vegetables is set in front of him. “Are you gonna visit Jeanette while you’re in town?”

Rhodey rolls his eyes. “Is she in NovaCare or PowerBack this time?” he asks.

His mother gives him a stern look, and answers, “PowerBack, and don’t be rude. It’s been hard for your sister.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who got addicted to coke and decided to forget about Lila. I mean, Christ, did she even _think_ about her kid, let alone the rest of us?”

“You watch your mouth, James. Maybe if you actually talked to her instead of–”

“Hey, I have a career, Ma. I helped save the entire planet! She helped save an extra twenty bucks by sleeping with her dealer!”

His mother slams her fist on the table. Rhodey looks down at his plate in shame. “Every time you come here, you start this,” his mother says. By the tone of voice, he knows this is gonna be one hell of a lecture. “I haven’t seen your face in two years, except on the news risking your neck. For two years, I read the headlines of the newspapers and wonder if you made it out that time, or if you ended up paralyzed, or comatose, or kidnapped, or _worse_. Lila has seen the occasional card with fifty dollars from you. Your uncle talked to you once because he happened to pick up the phone before I did. And Jeanette – you haven’t spoken in almost _six years_. Then you come home and start this nonsense.”

Rhodey groans and leans back in his chair. “I didn’t mean to,” he says.

“Then why’d you do it?” his mother demands.

“I don’t know.”

His mother clenches her fist and squeezes her eyes shut. He can hear her take deep, slow breaths through her nose. She doesn’t say anything before she grabs her purse and heads out. Rhodey looks down at his plate. The food smells amazing, but his appetite is gone.

He hears heavy footsteps heading his way, and for a second he believes his mother has come back so they can talk things out, but instead it’s Lila, carrying a large engine. She sets it on the floor and smiles grandly at her uncle.

“I made an engine!” she exclaims. Rhodey looks down at the engine. He can tell which parts are older, and where they are attached to each other. Lila reaches down and presses a button he can’t see. The engine roars to life with a cough of black smoke. It isn’t running smoothly, but it’s running nonetheless. Lila fishes a red ribbon out of her jean pocket and holds it out. “I got second runner-up in the science fair!”

“You did? Wow!” Rhodey says. “How long did this take you?”

“A few months. It started when Uncle Josh rented me _Mad Max: Fury Road_ , which I can't tell Gran I saw. There were really cool cars! I want to build a giant truck like those to drive around Philly with. But parking might be a problem,” Lila rambles. “Then when I go to high school, Mom can teach me how to drive, and I can take her to the beach and drive the whole way there!”

Rhodey smiles. He hopes Lila doesn’t think it’s sad, because he feels it’s sad. He loves (actually, it’s more past-tense now) his sister, but she’s a train wreck and a half. She lost her license years ago and hasn’t tried getting it renewed. The longest he remembers her staying clean is ten days, and even then he isn’t sure if she was honest when she told the family that. Jeanette hops from house to house with old friends who pity her and guys who want to use her. She’s been unemployed for years.

“Uncle Jim?” Lila asks, pulling Rhodey from his thoughts. “Are you a real superhero?”

Rhodey feels taken aback, but he doesn’t let it show. “ _I_ think I’m a real superhero,” he answers. “What do _you_ think?”

Lila smiles. “I think you’re the bravest superhero in the world.” She sits on a chair and crosses her legs. “When it’s career day, do you think you can come to school in your War Machine armor?”

“I don’t think coming into a school with a gun strapped to my shoulder is a good idea, but I’ll see what I can do. Just let me know when it gets closer.”

Lila jumps out of her chair and hugs Rhodey. “Thanks, Uncle Jim! I can’t wait to tell everyone you’re coming!” she cries. She lets go and picks up her engine, lugging it back to her room with a little dance in her step. Rhodey smiles as she goes. He pulls down his shirt sleeve to check his watch. If he books a flight close to the Avengers base, one of the agents can pick him up and drive him there before the meeting tomorrow. His room, hopefully, isn’t being rented out yet. Rhodey searches the cabinets and drawers for tin foil to cover his plate with before sticking it in the fridge. He waits patiently for his mother to return, before giving her a hug and promising to call.

As he sits in the plane and flies to an airport in Albany, he thinks about how it’s going to be harder to be an Avenger after everything that happened to them in the last few months. There’s no erasing the past and moving on. They’re broken now. They lost someone important to them all. And they fought each other in very brutal battles. Then there’s that Spider-Man (who’s less of a man and more of a kid who shouldn’t have been thrown into the mix in the first place) who bid them farewell to live a more-normal life. How are they all meant to get along again?

He asks himself this again in the morning, as he sits in a conference room with Tony at the head of the table and Natasha, Sam, Clint, Wanda, Vision, Maria Hill, and a beaten and bruised Sharon taking up the remaining seats.

Then he remembers seeing Lila’s smile when she told him that he’s the bravest hero in the world, and he knows that this means so much more to him than just being an Avenger again. He has people to protect. People he loves dearly that he needs to protect from the genocidal maniacs that they come across.

“I know that we’re all less-than-thrilled to be here this morning, but this is important. Just because we’ve had our problems in the past and that they’re probably nowhere near resolved at this point doesn’t mean we can take a backseat to being heroes,” Tony begins. He glances over at Sharon. “Not when Rumlow is still on the loose.”


End file.
